HAPPY OPENING DAY!!

Today was supposed to be the last opening day game ever to occur at Yankee Stadium but the game was rained out and will take place on Tuesday, April 1st. Go Yanks!


Jorge Posada

OUR NEW PRACTICE SPACE

This ad was found on Craigslist and it looks too good to pass up. I'm looking forward to "rehersing" there.

BEST WORKOUT SONG

At the gym today I came to the conclusion that Wrong by Archers of Loaf is the best workout song. It has the right combination of fast, mean and rock. I love this band in spite of the fact that they have one of the worst band names ever. I got into them around 1998 when I was in the middle of my master's program and I remember feeling slightly badass compared to my opera-listening classmates. Maybe I should have considered that an early clue that I was not going to end up an opera singer.

Speaking of AOL, years later while on tour with Breakup Breakdown we were hanging out at some bar in New Orleans after playing Checkpoint Charlies and I had a conversation with a guy about them. He was VERY into them, very drunk and also very strange. And, he was kind of following us around. We finally lost him and got back to the Dude (our van) only to find a crayon picture that looked like it had been drawn by a 5 year old under our windshield wiper. On the back of the drawing was scribbled "Archers of Loaf - Incredible!". It was... weird.

ALBUM UPDATE

Our album, Pole to Pole, is almost done! We are in the final stages of mixing. On April 7th we will be getting it mastered and on April 10th it goes off to the replicator! Three short weeks later we will have finished copies in our hands. Shortly after that you can have a copy in your hand, too! We will be giving them away at our CD Release Party in mid-May. As soon as the date is final I will post it here there and every darn place.

In the meantime - Jeff and I are DJing our favorite country songs on Saturday, April 5th from 5 - 9 at K+M and then we are doing a casual duo acoustic show at Parkside Lounge on April 15th at 8pm. That's a Tuesday.

HMMM...

Last night Bel Air went out to see a show at Glasslands Gallery. We were there to see our friend and engineer of the Breakup Breakdown album, Barry. He played bass with Samara Lubelski who was headlining. The opening act was a woman playing a Moog through several pedals/sequencers. It was a 25 minute solo freakout. Here are some probable reasons that I didn't like it:

1) I'm too old and I can't relate to what the kids are doing these days.
2) I wasn't stoned.
3) She was wearing this:



Samara Lubelski was great. That I can understand.

IDOL IS GETTING WEIRD

Peace Out, Chikezie.

Jeff's favorite contestant Chikezie was eliminated last night. Wyatt liked him a lot for a while there too but has since switched his allegiance to Syesha. I don't think too many people were surprised that he was eliminated, though. What was weird was that Jason Castro was in the bottom three! I really liked his bilingual cover of Der Stingaling's Fragile. It was good! And, he's so goofy and cute that you can't not love him. Wyatt even likes him - although, he did make fun of his pants on Tuesday saying that if you squinted it looked like he wasn't wearing any. Ha!



Other weirdness:
- Carly Smithson blamed her uncomfortableness during her performance this week on the fact that she was wearing Spanx. Is she pulling an Ashley Simpson? Carly went on to deny pregnancy rumors.
- David Archuleta was born in 1990.

CAN I HA DIS?

Answer: No. Only available in Sweden. Not sold through the interweb. Sweden is very far from here. The above facts lead up to me being very bummed. I haven't coveted a pair of shoes like this in a while. Boooo.

HAVE I BECOME A CLICHE?

Everyday I read a number of blogs: food blogs, music blogs, fashion blogs, apartment blogs. It was in one of the apartment blogs that I found an entry that links to a NYT article about a school teacher who won a housing lottery and was able to purchase a studio apartment on the upper east side for $14,000. Did I mention I love a run-on sentence? Here's the article

I'm happy for the guy and for me because I have a cheap apartment on the upper WEST side (so much better) of Manhattan that I've said on several occasions I won't give up until I get married. Then I read the comments. Specifically, this one:

"I wonder if this guy will become a typical commitment phobic New Yorker. Afraid that if he finds someone special he will have to give up his great deal and pay real rent/mortgage."

As I'm getting close to being a "real" New Yorker (10+ years in the city), I now fear I'm a cliche. I have no fear of commitment but I do fear life after my apartment. It's just so cute! And, cheap!

Other newsers - American Idol is on tonight. JASON CASTRO 4EVA! Wyatt and Jeff are big Chikezie fans. We'll see who prevails. Is there really any competition, though??

FREAKNESS AND TRIPLE CROWN ARE BACK!

Jeff and I are DJing all kinds of country at K+M on Saturday from 5 - 9. Last time was really fun. This time will be fun, too.

Fancy cocktails, fancy bartenders, fancy cheese.

It's going to be so much better than being in a dirty bar with 8,000 people who have been drunk for 3 days straight and are sweating out cheap beer. I'm talking about SXSW here. If you're not sweating beer and advil right now in Texas you should come to this happy hour.

K+M
North 8th and Roebling
5pm-9pm


BTW - Bel Air's first show was last night. It was super fun! Thanks to those who came.

MYSPACE DEMOS #2

I live in a two bedroom apartment in an old building. A while ago I found myself without a roommate for about a month. The empty second bedroom was reverb gold. I went in there one day and recorded myself singing a couple covers just because the reverb was so good. This edition of Myspace Demos is one of those. It was recorded on my iRiver's internal mic which is about the size of a pinhead. So, the quality is kinda crap. The song is Townes Van Zandt's Highway Kind. It's sad but describing it that way after telling you its a Townes song is a bit redundant. Enjoy! The next demo will be a little more light-hearted, I promise.

Go to our myspace link on the right to hear the song!

Or, check it out right here:

DOLLAR STORE DEALS

If you are in the market for a set of permanent markers you might want to go with the popular Skerple brand:



If you have pesky snakes running around your apartment you should probably stock up on some of these. With Peanut Sense!!:

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

Looks like someone beat me to the punch and put up a Jason Castro fan site!

Jason Castro Online!

I found it while looking for video of his performance from last night's show which I didn't get to see because, duh, I have a life. Um..yeah.

Below is his masterful rendition of "Hallelujah". And, like Randy, I must give my dog props for choosing this song, you feelin' me? It's a great song and not easy to do well. Check it out!